


Almost Paradise

by exarchangel



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Bottom!Gabriel, Fluff, High School, I bet I'm missing like dozens of tags so I'll add them as i think of them, M/M, Top!Sam, but it's not until the end and it's easy to avoid, except for some tragic backstories because it'ls unnavoidable, minimal angst, some swearing cause that's just how I am as a person tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-06
Updated: 2015-05-05
Packaged: 2018-03-21 12:01:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 20,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3691530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/exarchangel/pseuds/exarchangel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam Winchester is the stage manager for the high school's production of 'Footloose,' and the sassy lead won't give him a break. Not that he really minds.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Wow, this is the first long-ish fic I'm actually posting. (It'll be about 20k once it's all posted.)  
> It's self edited, so feel free to let me know if I messed anything up. I hope you enjoy!   
> (In case you don't read tags, the mature part won't be until the end, and is marked so you can avoid it if desired)

“Thanks for the ride. Don’t forget to pick me up at five!” Sam shouted to make sure he could be heard over the wind, which seemed to be threatening to peel the roofs off of houses.  
“I’ll be here.” Dean promised him, before rolling up the window again and driving away.  
Sam shrugged his backpack a little higher on his shoulder before walking inside the school, eyes shifting briefly to the auditorium as he passed it. This afternoon were the auditions for their spring musical, _Footloose_ , as well as brief interviews with the stage manager applicants, which included Sam.  
He loved theater and acting, always had, and he was even a pretty decent singer. It was the dancing that really posed as a challenge for him. If a bad dancer had two left feet, then Sam Winchester may as well have had one left foot and one peg leg. His coordination roughly resembled Bambi learning to walk. Cute? Yes. Skilled?...not so much. So, stage manager was the next best thing to being in the play.  
He worked through his morning classes absently, operating mostly on autopilot throughout the day. At lunch, he sat by Jo, Ash, and Charlie, all three of whom were auditioning, and sure to get good parts. They were also the only people he knew that would actually share his enthusiasm right now.  
“So, what’s everybody gonna sing?” He asked, setting down his salad and climbing into the crowded table next to Charlie.  
“Well,” she said, pausing to take a bite of apple before continuing, “I’m going to sing ‘Walking on Sunshine’ by Katrina and the Waves.” She said it happily, with a hint of pride, as though it were truly some sort of musical masterpiece. Of course, in Charlie’s mind, it was.  
“Freebird.” Ash said, peeling the wrapper off of whatever garbage the school was trying to pass off as a hamburger. “Skynyrd, all the way, man. What about you, Jo? Anything _exciting?”_ He teased.  
It was really no secret that the two had a thing for each other, no secret that you could find them making out in Jo’s truck any day of the week, even so far as going on what normal people would constitute as dates. But they were both way too casual to put any sort of label on things like that. In fact, if you called Ash Jo’s boyfriend, she’d probably kick your ass.  
“Well, it was a tough call between ‘Edge of Seventeen’ and ‘We Belong,’ but I gotta go with Benatar on this one.”  
Apparently, her choice had earned the highly coveted nod of approval from Ash, although Sam was never a big fan of the song himself. Love songs always seemed a little too thick for his taste. Couldn’t really imagine somebody actually thinking and feeling the words some of these people managed to sing with a straight face. Of course, Dean just told him he hadn’t experienced love yet, and someday he’d be as sappy as the best of them. Sam wasn’t so sure of that himself.  
“You guys are gonna do great.” He encouraged, stabbing a tomato as he did.  
“Thanks. I’m sure you’ll get the job, too.” Charlie said, like it had already been decided. “Why did you decide to be stage manager instead of auditioning, anyway?”  
“Well,” he said, trying to evade telling them the real answer why he couldn’t be in it. “I thought it would be nice to try it, you know? Seemed interesting.”  
They discussed the play a little more before the doors opened and they had to go back to class.  
English was all that was left after lunch, and it wasn’t too long until he made his way to the auditorium, along with at least 40 or so other students.  
“Hey Sam!” Kevin called, squeezing past a couple of people to catch up with him.  
“Hey, Kevin.” He greeted to the Sophomore as they walked together. “What’re you doing here? I thought you were gonna do sound crew?” He pushed open the door as he waited for an answer.  
“I am. Balthazar just said he wanted some help with the casting, and he decided I’d be less biased than most of the others.” He replied with a shrug, walking up to the front to sit down next to Balthazar, the flashy british guy that was the new head of the school’s theater department. He was a little on the odd side, but dramatic was a pretty fitting word.  
Sam hung back to sit by the handful of other stage manager applicants, waiting patiently for the auditions to be over.  
A lot of the acts were pretty good, with his friends standing out in particular. Jo absolutely killed it, even if he didn’t care for the song.  
Just as he was wondering how many people were still left to perform, he heard Kevin announce the last name.  
“And, our final performer, Gabriel Novak.”  
Gabriel. The name was familiar. He was a Junior, same as Sam, but that’s all he knew. He’d heard a couple of stories, though.

A shaggy-haired blond boy, who could probably be described as being somewhat baby-faced, walked onto the stage then, in just jeans and a plain black t-shirt. He walked casually over to ancient boombox on the edge of the stage and put in his music, pressing play and waiting for the delay, before belting out a perfect rendition of Hot Chocolate’s ‘You Sexy Thing.’  
Well, that was a bit of a plot twist.  
Sam, along with basically everyone else in the room, was practically howling by the time the song was over. Talk about putting on a show. Not only was his voice comparable to God’s own, but between the voice, the dancing, and the gestures, he’d put on what was, without a doubt, the best audition in all of history. Broadway included.  
Casting wasn’t really going to be all that difficult after all.  
As soon as the music stopped, he once again took up the same professional composure he’d had when he first got on stage. He grabbed his CD and sat back down while Balthazar just gave a quick message about how well everyone had done, and informing them that a cast list would be posted outside the main office the next morning.  
After they’d cleared out, he came back to speak with Sam and the others. He really didn’t have much to say or ask, just the basic “Why do you want this position?” and “Why do you think you’d be a good choice for it?”  
In the end, he’d chosen Sam, who had more theater experience than the other four students put together.  
Sam made his way out to the parking lot to find Dean’s car, pulling his jacket tighter as he walked. Clearly, the wind hadn’t let up at all throughout the day, and it was really way too cold to be March right now.  
“How’d it go?” Dean asked, turning down the radio so he could actually hear Sam’s answer.  
“Great! I got the job, and Jo, Ash, and Charlie smashed their auditions.”  
“That’s awesome. Congrats, Sammy.”  
Sam just smiled back at him as his brother turned the volume up again, singing along poorly to some Foreigner song or whatever it was that was playing.

The next day wasn’t any warmer than the last. When he got to school, he’d decided it would be a good idea to check out the cast list. See who his friends were playing, and get a feel for who he’d be working with for the next few weeks.  
It was no surprise to see Jo and Gabriel listed as the leads, Ren and Ariel. Ash and Charlie were next in line as Willard and Rusty, and down the row he recognized Anna, Chuck, and Pamela. The rest were kids he didn’t know, most of whom were in different grades. Seemed like a nice group, though.  
Rehearsals would start on Thursday, so he still had another three whole days of classes before they started working on things. Fortunately for him, the three days flew by easily, and in no time, he was making his way back again, eager to start working.  
He was so caught up in thinking about things that he nearly walked straight into Gabriel on his way to the stage.  
“Woah, easy there, big bird.” The other boy said with a grin, grabbing his shoulder briefly to stabilize him.  
Somehow during the audition, Sam hadn’t seemed to register just how big of a height difference there was between the two of them, but now that they were face to face, it was almost hard to ignore. Jo might even be taller than him, now that he thought about it.  
“Sorry.” Sam apologized, returning the smile before going back on his way.  
He stepped around him and continued walking, somehow unable to get the image of those big, strangely pretty eyes out of his head. He completely forgot what he’d been thinking about earlier. All he could see were those eyes. They were like sunshine and gold, with a touch of honey. _And why did that description sound like something you’d hear in a cereal commercial?_  
Balthazar informed them that they’d be devoting the first few weeks just to practice getting the singing down, then they’d begin to work on the lines and dance numbers.  
One thing was already certain after the first rehearsal: Sam was never going to listen to Kenny Loggins again in his life.

The next afternoon he was introduced to Ruby, the costume designer, who’d asked him for help taking people’s measurements. Since there wasn’t really any managing to do yet anyway, he’d agreed to help. She thanked him as she handed him a tape measure and half the stack of charts to record on. The first name was Ash, who was alright for measuring, and didn’t go out of his way to make things more awkward than they had to be, which Sam was grateful for. He moved through the sheets, eventually getting to Gabriel’s name.

Gabriel Novak was an absolute nightmare. Sam couldn’t get one measurement taken without hearing some sort of suggestive comment or sexual innuendo. He was having trouble figuring out if the kid was like this with everyone or if he was actually, honest-to-god flirting with him.  
The worst had to have been when he was taking his inseam, or at least _trying_ to, and Gabriel just looked at him deadpan and said “Don’t you think you should at least buy me dinner first?,” which had turned Sam all different shades of red, hard as he tried to ignore it.  
After finally filling out the rest of the numbers and returning the info to Ruby, it was nearly five o’clock, and everyone was getting their things to leave. He honestly had no idea what to make of Gabriel yet.  
Checking his phone, Sam couldn’t help the groan that escaped when he read his latest message from Dean.  
_Impala’s got a flat. Sorry Sammy, but I think 5:30’s the earliest I can get there._  
Sam walked outside and leaned against the brick wall to wait. The apartment was too far to walk, and he was already exhausted. When he felt the first drops of rain hit his skin, he seriously considered just forking over a ten and calling a cab.  
Of course, always there to save the day, Gabriel pulled up at just the right moment and offered him a ride.  
For some reason, there was a small part of him that wanted to refuse, but they both knew that the rain was only going to get heavier, and he couldn’t really think of a good reason to say no, so he simply nodded and said his thanks, pulling out his phone to let Dean know he had a ride, before walking around to the passenger side of the little red car and getting in.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam and Gabriel get to know each other a little better as time progresses.

The inside of Gabriel’s car was a lot cleaner than he’d expected. It was small, but nice aside from that. The pineapple air freshener might have been a little much, but he didn’t say anything about it.  
Unlike Dean, he wasn’t playing any music when Sam got in, just listening to the sound of rain on the roof.  
“Okay, I gotta pick my little brother Cassy up at the middle school, and then you can tell me where to go.”  
Sam just nodded, eyes tracing the raindrops as they streaked across the windshield. He felt bad making Gabe’s brother wait outside in this. It would probably be pouring by the time they got there.  
He wondered absently as they drove what ‘Cassy’ was a nickname for.  
When they got to the school, a thin boy in a trenchcoat with soaking wet dark hair walked over to the car, proceeding to shake the water out of his hair in Gabriel’s direction, before turning to Sam and introducing himself as Castiel. His eyes were almost shockingly blue, especially compared to Sam’s own hazel ones, and he was beginning to think that everyone in the Novak family must have had gorgeous eyes.  
“Alright, Samsquatch, show me the way. Or tell me, or whatever.”  
“Okay, uh...next left, the one just past this stoplight.” Sam directed him the rest of the way back to his and Dean’s apartment, grabbing his bag off of the floor when they eventually pulled up outside the old gray building.  
“Thanks again for the ride, Gabriel. It was nice meeting you, Cas!” He said as he got out, running the short distance between the car and the door, trying not to get too wet.  
He trudged up to the third floor, feet heavy. Thank god it was Friday.  
When he opened the door and kicked his shoes off, Dean was sitting on the couch channel surfing, with a beer in one hand and a remote in the other. He was technically still a year too young to drink, but somehow that never really stopped him from getting alcohol when he wanted it. Sam wasn’t too concerned about it though, since he hadn’t ever really gotten drunk, save for the day their dad died, and who could blame him then?  
“I take it you got the tire fixed?” Sam asked, slumping onto the couch next to him, kicking his feet up onto the coffee table.  
“Yup. How was rehearsal?” He put the remote down to talk, the channel left for the time being on _Doctor Sexy._  
“It was alright. The lead’s a little on the weird side, but he gave me a ride home, so I guess I can’t really complain too much.”  
Dean just nodded, picking at the label of his bottle. Sam wasn’t even sure if he was listening anymore, so he decided it’d be better to just stop talking. He got up to go put on some dry clothes, filling up a glass of water on the way.  
Thankfully they wouldn’t have anything play related on Saturdays, except for set crew, and that didn’t start for a little while. That meant he could sleep in as late as he wanted the next day, an opportunity he planned on taking up.  
He only left his room again that evening once, for dinner, which included a very engaging conversation with Dean about why Star Trek TNG was better than the original. You’d never know it from his outer appearance, but his brother was probably one of the nerdiest people on the planet, Sam included.

He didn’t wake up the next day until almost noon, a brief flash golden eyes the last image he saw before opening his own.  
Dean was flipping pancakes in the kitchen when he walked in, and he accepted his stack gratefully, managing to wolf down half a the plateful before the phone rang.  
“Hello. Winchester residence? This is Dean, I presume? Is your brother home?” Dean held the phone away from his ear and stared at it strangely for a minute before handing it to Sam.  
“There’s some weird british dude asking for you.” Well, Sam only knew one british person, so there wasn’t much mystery there when he answered.  
“Hi, Balthazar.” Sam said, bracing himself for whatever news he was about to get.  
Apparently, he was going to be gone for a day, and needed Sam to run the rehearsal. He stopped listening about halfway through the man’s excuse for his absence. All he’d needed to say was that he was gonna be gone Monday and Sam would have to take his place, but instead he decided to dive into his entire life story, informing him of every event that led up to his inavailability the following week.  
“Alright. I can do that. Thanks for the heads up. Bye.” Sam hung up quickly, before he had a chance to keep talking about something else.  
“What was that about?” Dean asked, pouring what looked like the entire bottle of syrup on his pancakes.  
“Uh, theater head. He’s gone Monday and I gotta run things.”  
“That’s it? Why did it take so damn long to tell you that?”  
Sam shrugged and continued to eat. Neither of them had much patience for long winded people.

The rest of the weekend was spent mostly on homework and organizing some things for the play, aside from the brother’s Saturday night X-Men movie marathon. They weren’t his favorite films, but they were the only thing by Marvel that Dean actually liked, so it was a compromise.  
He wasn’t entirely sure what to expect Monday, but he knew there would be cooperation issues. People didn’t care much for taking orders from people their own age. Still, nothing would have fully prepared him for the human disaster that was Gabriel Novak.  
It had started innocently enough- a couple of improvised lines here and there. It threw the others off a bit, but some of his ideas were better than the actual script, so he let it slide.  
Then it was the singing off-key. He really did have a beautiful voice, but you’d never know it if you heard him that day. Every single note was either too high or too low, so wrong it had to have taken effort. That was when Sam really realized he was doing it all on purpose.  
He’d also had to stop every five minutes to answer another ridiculous question, which was taking away from their time significantly. Among them were “Can Ren have a Jamaican accent?” and “What if instead of a honky tonk, this scene took place in a nightclub?” Both of which received nothing more than an eye roll and a frustrated ‘no.’  
By the time five o’clock finally rolled around, Sam was more than happy to grab his stuff and go home. If Gabe didn’t lay off this stuff when Balthazar came back, Sam was going to have to confront him about it, which was definitely a conversation he’d rather not have, if it was avoidable.  
When he got home and Dean informed him that Balthazar would be gone again tomorrow, he felt himself die a little inside. Gabriel seemed like he was an okay guy, but he didn’t appear to have a serious bone in his body, which was challenging when you were trying to get over a dozen high schoolers to actually work on something.

Rather than waste the entire day again and put it off until the end, Sam decided it would be better to just be proactive and talk to him for a minute before they even started.  
He pulled Gabe aside when he saw him, asking if he could talk to him about something quick.  
“What’s up, Sampson?” He asked casually. There was a lock of hair in his face, and for some reason Sam had the sudden urge to brush it away. He refrained from doing so, also making a mental note to come up with some decent nicknames for Gabriel later.  
“Just wondering if you were actually gonna let us get work done today or not?” It came out a little bit harsher than he’d intended, but if it bothered Gabriel, he didn’t say anything.  
“I was thinking about it. Why do you ask? What’re you gonna do if I don’t?” He said it like it was a challenge, but if so, it was one Sam certainly wouldn’t be taking him up on. He didn’t have time to deal with this today.  
He had to re-approach this in a way that Gabriel might actually listen to. He was supposed to be in charge here, dammit.  
“Just...try to be on task? Please?” He asked, almost pleadingly. He wanted this to go well, and Gabriel was the biggest thing (Well, figuratively speaking) standing in the way of that right now.  
“I’ll do my best. Anything for you.” He said with a wink, before walking away again.  
huh. That was an interesting exchange.  
Gabriel wasn’t perfect, but there was a significant improvement from the previous day, so Sam counted it as a win.  


He couldn’t help it. It might have been against his better judgement, but he actually kinda liked the guy. There was something about him that made it really hard to stay angry, no matter what he did. According to Dean, Sam had the same talent.  
Eventually, they started getting along, talking more during breaks, even stopping to say hi when they saw each other in the halls. Somehow, before Sam even realized it, they were becoming pretty good friends, which wasn’t a common occurrence for him.  
Balthazar was there less and less as the show progressed, which left Sam in charge more often than not. He didn’t mind the responsibility so much, now that he and Gabriel were seeing eye to eye better.  
He’d also gotten the chance to try out a nickname or two on him since that Tuesday.  
The first time, he’d said something along the lines of ‘Sure thing, short stack,’ and for a minute, Gabe had just stood there speechless, and Sam couldn’t read if his expression was offended or impressed. He got his answer when he started laughing and patted him on the shoulder. Well, there were plenty more short nicknames he could think of. Dean used to use that one on him when they were kids, before Sam had his growth spurt and was suddenly the taller of the two.

Gabriel also managed to catch onto Sam’s sense of humor pretty fast. Just because he was probably being a little uptight with all the play stuff didn’t mean that he couldn’t laugh about things.  
Once he figured out how to make him laugh, Gabe had been absolutely relentless. Half the time Sam had to call a break because there were tears streaming down his face from laughing so hard.  
At one point, the sound crew had accidentally started playing the music for “Holding Out for a Hero” during the middle of a break, and Gabriel jumped on stage and without a moment’s pause began to sing, pointing at Sam as he did so, like he was serenading him.  
“I need a hero! I’m holding out for a heeroo ‘til the morning light! He’s gotta be sure and he’s gotta be soon and he’s gotta be larger than life!”  
He finished the last line with a power slide across the stage, throwing his head back dramatically.  
Slowly, everyone who witnessed the scene began to applaud, except for Sam, who was too busy laughing to even attempt clapping.  
Gabriel took a bow, jumping off the stage and basically sauntering over to Sam.  
“So what do you think? Could I play Ariel?” He grinned, dropping into the seat next to him.  
“Oh, absolutely. I think we better tell Jo she has competition!” He was barely able to form the sentence without laughing again. It was getting harder to focus by the minute around here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, what do you think so far? Don't be afraid to comment or message me, I'd love to hear some feedback!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mostly backstory, and Dean meets the Novaks.

Unfortunately, just because there weren’t Saturday rehearsals yet didn’t mean there weren’t other jobs that needed doing, even on a weekend.  
Sam turned down Dean’s Led Zeppelin tape as he drove up to the ordering window of McDonalds- Three large coffees, and a hot chocolate for Cas.  
Set crew was a voluntary position, usually consisting of just cast members and family. Of course, at 8 a.m. on a Saturday, not too many people had been all that keen on waking up to come, leaving Sam, Gabriel and their brothers, along with a small group of people that neither of them knew.  
Introductions were made briefly, and Sam had been sent off to go get drinks.  
When he came back, Gabriel had somehow managed to hook his phone up to the sound system, and was blasting something that was most likely Taylor Swift at full volume. Dean seemed less than pleased at the music choice, but Sam just shrugged and handed him his coffee.  
They worked well for a while, painting the faux stained-glass windows for the church set. Inevitably, however, Dean eventually wound up getting paint in Sam’s hair, and even though he swore it was an accident, it was already too late. The great paint war of 2015 had begun.  
Gabe and Cas were quick to join in, and soon the four of them were all sporting various shades of Valspar, in their clothes, hair, and on their faces.  
There had been no survivors, and Sam was honestly a little worried that the blue stripes on the back would never come out of Cas’ trenchcoat.  
At 11, the foursome made their way out to the parking lot, all laughing, though none of them could tell you what was so funny.  
“Hey,” Dean said, finally regaining his composure “if you guys don’t have anywhere you need to be for a while, you wanna go grab a bite to eat? I’m starved.”  
Apparently nobody was too concerned about their outward appearances, even though there was still paint drying on all of them.  
The Novaks took him up on the offer, and after deciding on Dean’s favorite side-of-road diner, they all piled into the impala, since it could easily seat four, and Gabe didn’t know how to get there anyway.  
During the drive, they wound up in a very heated discussion about whether or not Marvel was better than DC. (And by the way, Dean and Cas were wrong. Marvel kicks ass.)  
Dean pulled into an empty space, and they all made their way inside.  
“Winchesters!” Ellen exclaimed, coming out from behind the bar to hug them both.  
“And to whom do I owe the pleasure?” She asked, feigning a southern belle accent as she addressed Cas and Gabriel.  
“This,” Sam said, taking it upon himself to conduct the introductions “is Cas. And this,” he said, making a gesture to Gabriel, though none was necessary “is Gabriel. He’s playing Ren. Cas, Gabe, this is Ellen. Jo’s mother, and the best cook this side of the Mississippi.”  
“Nice to meet you boys” she said, extending her hand.  
“Either side of the Mississippi” Dean corrected with a smile.  
They were led to a small booth, Dean and Cas taking one side, and Sam and Gabriel squeezing into the other. There was a significant size difference between Sam and Cas.  
He pretended to ignore the fact that his and Gabriel’s legs were pressed almost completely together under the table. He tried even harder to ignore the fact that he kind of liked it.  
They placed their orders for shakes and burgers, before falling into a more ‘getting to know you’ style of conversation.  
Apparently Gabriel was a virgo, born in Montana, and his favorite color was red. Cas was in eighth grade, liked almost all of the same books as Sam, and played viola like a pro.  
The discussion dropped off as soon as there were plates and glasses being set in front of them, and somehow Gabe and Dean wound up challenging each other to see who could tie their cherry stem in a knot with their tongue faster. Impressively enough, Gabriel won hands down.  
Once they started on the burgers, The only sounds left were Dean and Gabe, who were giving downright sexual moans around their food. Sam and Cas just looked at each other and burst out laughing, spitting bits of fries at their brothers and each other in the process. Sam laughed so hard that he accidentally snorted, resulting in Gabriel just about choking to death. He had to hit him on the back until he could breathe again, which only seemed to make the situation funnier.   
Eventually, they calmed down enough to finish the meal, though it took a while. They drove   
back to the school, belting out Bohemian Rhapsody as they went, and finally parted ways, everyone getting in their own cars and going home.   
Sam finished up the homework he’d been putting off all week once they got home, not wanting to leave it for Sunday night.

When he woke up, he had a text from Gabriel, which was odd because he didn’t remember exchanging numbers at any point. Apparently, not only did Gabriel have his number, but he was also already set up as a contact in Sam’s phone.  
 _Busy today? I’ve was thinking about watching ‘The Kingsmen’ at two, and I was wondering if you wanted to join me?_  
He didn’t even really need to think about his answer. The clock on his phone said 10, so he still had plenty of time to shower and get ready.  
 _Sounds good. Should I borrow the car or can you pick me up?_  
He didn’t have to wait long for a response.  
 _Nah, don’t worry about it, I’ll come get you at 1:30_  
Sam texted back a quick confirmation before pouring a bowl of cheerios and sitting down across from Dean.  
“Morning, sunshine.” He said, raising an eyebrow as Sam put his phone down.  
“What’re your plans for the day?”  
“I’m gonna catch a movie with Gabe this afternoon.”  
Dean nodded, taking another long sip of his coffee. How he managed to drink that instant stuff black, Sam would never understand.  
He finished his food and took a long, hot shower, changing into a button down and some decent jeans before heading outside to meet Gabriel. If he happened to look nicer than usual, it was purely coincidental.

“What’s the deal with the apartment anyway?” Gabriel asked conversationally as Sam climbed in. “I’m not judging you or anything, but does your whole family live in one of those tiny things, or what?”  
“Um….Well, actually, both of my parents are dead. It’s just Dean and I.” Sam said awkwardly as he closed the door. It wasn’t like saying it was painful, like he was going to break down from just four words, but he didn’t like bringing it up, since it tended to turn the conversation pretty heavy. He really didn’t want to ruin the afternoon with it.  
“Oh god, I’m sorry. I had no idea.” Gabriel said with concern, but he didn’t try to change topic either. “I suppose I kinda get that...I mean, my dad’s still around, but my mom died having Cassy. He doesn’t exactly know that detail though, so don’t tell him. Last thing I want is for the poor kid to blame himself.” Gabriel said, turning onto the highway.  
“Wouldn’t dream of it.” Sam promised. “Our mom died in a fire when I was a baby, so I didn’t know her, and Dean barely did. Dad passed a couple years ago, but Dean was already an adult, so he legally adopted me. He’s been working at Bobby’s garage since high school.”  
“Bobby?” Gabe asked.   
It was kinda weird to all of a sudden be admitting all this stuff. Actually, only a couple of Sam’s closest friends knew the entire deal with his family, and he’d only really known Gabriel for what? A month?  
“Family friend. He never had kids, but he loves ‘em, and he helped out my dad after mom died. My dad was gone a lot for work, so Dean and Bobby pretty much raised me when dad wasn’t home, even though Dean was still pretty young himself.”  
Gabriel nodded, not going to push the topic any more at the moment, noticing that his friend was starting to look uncomfortable.  
“I actually have one other brother, Michael, who’s in college now.” He said, changing the attention away from Sam.  
“We fought a lot, since there’s only a two year age difference. He’s still a pretty good older brother when it comes down to it, I guess, but Cas and I _never_ fight. Kid’s a little on the strange side, and I’ve always felt responsible for protecting him, you know? Like, on the one hand, the kid’s too smart for his own good, but on the other, he’s still so kind and innocent. World hasn’t quite gotten to him yet, and I wanna keep that as long as I can. At least one of the three of us deserves a real childhood, and I intend to let him have that.” He said, sounding more determined and responsible than Sam had ever heard him.  
It wasn’t really until that moment that he really realized just how mature Gabriel actually was, how much he must have been through. He wasn’t quite as trivial and childish as Sam had thought when they first met. Much as he hated to admit it, Sam sometimes had a problem with judging people a little too soon. He was always a little wary when he thought someone had the potential to hurt him.  
They were currently stopped at a red light, and before he really knew what he was doing, he was leaning across the seat and giving Gabriel a somewhat awkward hug.   
He could definitely relate to the part about wanting a childhood. Dean had done his best, and he knew he’d had it better than his brother, but Sam had still grown up way too fast. All his life he’d just wanted to be normal, to be like everyone else, but he’d always felt kind of alone. And here was Gabriel, his friend, who was suddenly admitting to essentially the same thing. He was sad, but at the same time, it was comforting to not be so alone anymore.  
The light changed, and he slowly straightened back into his seat. At least the hug had been returned. When he looked over at him, he noticed tears pricking at the corners of Gabe’s eyes.  
“You know, I’ve never told anyone that before? It’s kind of a relief.” He’d said after a minute, when he was comfortable talking again.  
Sam nodded, feeling something wet on his cheek, and realizing that he’d actually started crying a little himself. Well, if it was confession time, he might as well put it all on the table, too.  
“My dad and I didn’t get along either.” He began. Not getting along was actually a pretty big understatement. “Argued about nearly everything, whether it was important or not. On the day he died-” he stopped himself for a minute, looking for the words he needed to continue.  
“On the day he died, it had been over how he was always gone, he wasn’t around enough to really be my dad, and even when he was there, he drank too much...The last words I ever said to him were ‘I’d be better off without you.’ He got in a car accident and died later that night. You know, they’re right about the whole ‘don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone’ thing.”  
Damn. Even Dean didn’t know those were the exact last words exchanged. He knew they’d fought, but this was a secret from even his own brother.  
“Yikes. That’s...wow. I’m sure he didn’t think you meant it. God, Sam, I’m really sorry.”  
“Yeah.” Sam said, not sure what else there was to say. “Me too.”  
The rest of the drive, they both stayed silent, so when they pulled in, neither were on the verge of tears anymore. The movie was good, and the conversation on the way home was lighter, just discussing the film and how kickass SLJ was.   
Even though it had been more than little depressing, after talking about all that family stuff with Gabriel, he felt significantly better. Now someone knew. Not only knew, but could _relate._ He didn’t have to be so alone anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd kill for a comment right now... :)


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam Winchester _really_ can't dance

Things with the play were really starting to come together nicely, now that opening night was only a couple of weeks out.  
The sets were all finished, Ruby was putting the final touches on the costumes, and not only did everyone know their own lines, but they knew everybody else’s by now, too.  
Everyone had their cues noted, their directions down, their i’s dotted and t’s crossed.  
Which, of course, is exactly when something major had to go wrong. Always did.

Ash hobbled into school Monday on crutches, a hard blue cast plastered to his ankle.  
“What happened?” Sam asked, grabbing the textbooks and binders from him so he could walk easier.  
“Bike accident. It involved a homemade ramp and some questionable beverages. I do not recommend.”  
Sam groaned, rubbing his face with his free hand. _Dammit Ash, everyone was counting on you. What the hell were they supposed to do now?_  
“Hey, c’mon now.” Ash said, in a tone that suggested he was about to offer a solution, and not a very good one, either.   
“Seriously, don’t worry about it. You’ll be able to replace me just fine, no big deal.”  
No big deal. No big deal, except for the fact that it was a freaking _musical,_ and Sam couldn’t dance to save his life.  
But, unfortunately, the more he thought about things, the more he realized that Ash was right, there wasn’t exactly another option now. Not only going to have to learn how to dance, but he was gonna have to learn _fast._  
He groaned and walked Ash to his class.

Sam made the announcement at rehearsal that day, drawing little response from anyone, aside from Ruby, who was just pissed about having wasted a costume, and now having a whole different person to dress. Aside from her, everyone seemed pretty okay with the idea that he would be taking over, which was reassuring.  
Of course, there was still the slight detail where they hadn’t seen him dance yet.  
“So it sounds like you’re in the show after all.” Gabriel said, walking outside with him after practice ended.  
“Yeah.” Sam affirmed, not reflecting any of the enthusiasm Gabe had been expecting.  
“Hey, hey, hey. What’s wrong? ‘Cause I know you can act just fine. I saw you do it in the play first tri. So what’s the issue?”  
Sam sighed, stopping for a minute and running his hand through his hair nervously.  
“Yeah, but that wasn’t a _musical_ , Gabe.” He pointed out, staring down at his shoes as he spoke.  
“So? I’ve heard you sing, too, you know. You’re not bad, not at all, if that’s what you’re worried about.”  
Sam just shook his head, wondering why the hell it was taking him so long to just spit it out.  
“I can’t dance for shit.” He said it all at once, like it was one word.  
Gabriel’s jaw dropped, and Sam had to resist the urge to wince.  
“Seriously? Like, not at all?”  
“Seriously, not at all.” Sam confirmed, sighing.  
“Well, then you better clear your schedule for this weekend, since it sounds like I’m gonna have to teach you.”  
“You’r- What?” He asked, not sure if he’d heard right.  
“Well, we can’t exactly do the show if you don’t know how to dance, can we?”  
“I guess not, but...You’d really do that for me?”  
“Oh, of course I would, don’t act so surprised about it. I can be a good person.” He said, sounding offended at Sam’s surprise.  
Well, that sounded pretty damn final, then.  
“Okay then. How does Saturday work for you?”  
“Saturday would be great, Sampson.”  
Sam made sure to reorganize the rehearsal schedule when he got home, so they wouldn’t be practicing any of his dancing parts until next week. He knew he was cutting it close, and probably putting waaay too much faith into a couple hours of learning from Gabriel. But what other choice did he have?

Of course, much as he tried to hide it, Dean found out about the plans pretty easily. They were honestly too damn old to be getting information from each other by way of tickling.   
And so, with the knowledge that Sam was going to be learning to dance, from Gabriel no less, Dean had insisted on coming as soon as the words were out of his mouth.  
They pulled into the empty parking lot of a deserted old Gas’n’sip, where Gabriel was already waiting for him. With Cas. Because what could make this more embarrassing, besides more people watching, of course?  
Gabriel smiled and walked over to him while Dean and Cas leaned against the impala, whispering something to each other that Sam was pretty sure he didn’t want to know, so he did his best to ignore them.  
“Okay, now, if you’re really as bad as you say you are, I think we should start with just matching the beats. Once the music starts, either tap your foot or snap or something with the beats, alright?” Gabriel instructed first.  
Sam just nodded, wondering what horrible things he must have done in some past life to deserve this nightmare.  
He signaled at Cas to press play, starting the music.  
For a minute, Sam just stood there dumbfounded, seriously questioning the song choice. _Cyndi Lauper, really Gabe?_  
He snapped out of it and remembered what he was supposed to be doing when he heard someone, couldn’t tell who, shout “Show us what you got!” at him, whoever it was sounding like they were holding back laughter already. Probably Dean.

He did pretty well in the beginning, caught onto the basics easily enough. Then they started to work on the routines.   
He’d watched them enough times to know the steps, so that wasn’t really the problem. The problem was that he just flat out sucked at this stuff.  
But by almost noon, he was passable. Not good by any stretch of the word, but passable.  
Gabriel sent their brothers off to go get food somewhere, before turning to Sam, cheeks red for reasons he didn’t know.  
“Okay, so you know for the final scene, you’re also going to need to know how to slow dance, right?”  
Of course he knew. He’d been at rehearsal every day, same as Gabe, and- Oh. Oohhhh. _That_ was why he’d insisted Dean take Cas with him when he left.  
“Okay.” Sam said, suddenly understanding why Gabe looked so flustered.  
He put his phone down on the hood of the car, grabbing Sam’s arms and putting them on his hips, before reaching over and pressing play, the first notes of _Thinking Out Loud_ filling the crisp spring air.  
“Now, you have to lead, which means that you’ve got to use your hands and feet to move me where you want me to go. You can start by just swaying.”  
Gabriel put his hands on Sam’s shoulders awkwardly, moving as Sam directed him, strong hands moving his hips from side to side.  
“Okay, that’s good. See? I told you you would be good at _some_ sort of dance. You’re a natural.” He waited a minute, just swaying some more before speaking again.  
“Alright, try adding some steps in now, and other stuff if you feel comfortable with that.”  
Comfortable wasn’t really a word Sam would’ve used as he moved one of his hands to the small of Gabriel’s back, pulling him closer before taking a step backwards, bringing him with.  
He stared into his eyes, unsure of where else to look, and for a second he thought he saw something flash in them. _Contentedness? Desire?_ He shook his head to clear the thought.  
The lyrics wound around them, filling the air, as Sam let go with one hand and dipped him backwards.  
 _“People fall in love in mysterious ways, maybe it’s all part of a plan.”_  
He tipped him up again, spinning him in a circle before grabbing his hand and crossing their fingers together.  
It was warm, and softer than he’d imagined. Not that he’d been imagining holding Gabriel’s hand or anything.  
 _“Maybe we found love, right where we are.”_  
The song transitioned into the next, and they just held onto each other and kept dancing, even though it was clear that Sam really didn’t need any more lessons, in that category at least.  
Just as the last song started to fade out, they could hear the familiar roar of the impala rounding the corner, and Gabe cleared his throat as he pulled away, closing out of the playlist before Dean and Cas pulled in with Taco Bell.

Sam ate his burrito silently, doing his best not to be too obvious about the totally non-platonic moment he’d just had with his friend. Really, if he thought about it, he’d known he liked Gabriel for a while now, but the closer they got, the harder it was to ignore. Especially since it seemed, at least a little bit, like the feelings might be returned.  
After lunch, they just worked on the routines some more, both making their best efforts to pretend that nothing had happened earlier. They may have been actors, but they couldn’t really deny that there was an awkward air after that.  
By the time they went home, Sam was fairly confident in his dancing, and not at all confident in his relationship status.  
Should he bring it up? Would it be weird to talk about it? Maybe he should just try to forget that anything happened in the first place. Maybe he read it wrong, and Gabriel wasn’t interested.  
He rolled over and buried his head in the pillows, wishing he had someone to talk to about this. Someone who wasn’t Dean, preferably.  
He practiced the dances on his own a little Sunday, clumsily walking through the steps in his bedroom, before giving up and just waiting until he had more room to do it in.

The final week of rehearsals began Monday, and things were honestly going a lot smoother than he’d anticipated, especially considering that there wasn’t really a stage manager at all anymore. Balthazar had started coming in more, though.  
Sam managed to make it through all the dances without landing on his ass, and in the end, that was the most he could’ve asked for.  
He couldn’t take his eyes off of Gabriel all day, and Gabe was acting a little uncomfortable himself. Something had definitely changed between the two of them, and it looked like Sam was gonna have to nut up and deal with his feelings sooner than later, because it was gonna be damn hard to perform on Friday with all of this going on upstairs.  
He somehow managed to make it through both Tuesday and Wednesday before finally giving in and deciding to tell Dean. Hopefully he’d at least listen and take it seriously, even if he didn’t have any advice to offer. Sam knew he was screwed when he was actually considering taking _Dean’s_ advice on anything, especially relationships.  
Unfortunately, today was one of the only days all month that Dean had had to work late.  
He tried to work on his English essay while he waited for his brother to get home from the garage, but eventually he just gave up and turned on the TV, flipping channels aimlessly, struggling to focus on any one thing in particular for more than a minute before his thoughts started to drift back to Gabriel, and how warm he was, and smart, and nice. How his eyes sparkled when he laughed, and how he listened like he really gave a shit, no matter how petty the topic was. Sam was so totally screwed.  
By the time Dean finally walked through the door, Sam was practically scaling the walls with how worked up he was over this. He’d even been tempted to pick up his phone and just call Gabriel, but he knew that was a bad idea.  
“What’s up?” Dean asked, hanging his leather jacket up, the door barely shut before Sam just opened his mouth abruptly and asked “Can I talk to you about something?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, look at these two, finally starting to get their shit together. About time.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam and Dean have a little talk, and opening night begins!

“Of course you can, Sammy. What’s the matter?” Dean said, doing his best to sound concerned, without being smothering. Sam wasn't a kid.  
“Well, it’s...I, uh…Okay. I like Gabriel. A lot.” Dean already knew he was bi, Sam kept telling himself this wasn’t going to be a problem. He just had to get it out there, and things would be fine. Dean liked Gabriel, it wasn’t gonna piss him off or anything.  
“ _And?”_ Dean asked, like Sam hadn't just admitted he had a crush on his friend.  
“No, I mean, I _like_ him. As in, _dating_ like.” He didn’t think he’d have to elaborate what he meant, but Dean didn’t seem to be getting it.  
“I know. Are you just finally figuring this out now?” _Okay, what the hell, Dean?_ Maybe he _had_ understood.  
“Apparently. What do you mean, you already knew?” He wasn’t exactly angry, but he was certainly surprised. _Had he really been that obvious about it? Did_ Gabriel _already know?_  
“Dude, you two are like, head over heels for each other. Cas and I have been making bets about when and which one of you would actually get their shit together and ask the other one out first. It was only a matter of time.”  
Dean was such an ass. That must have been what he and Cas were whispering about on Saturday. But wait, did that mean...Did Gabriel like him back?  
“You think he’s interested, too?” Sam had tried not to sound like a thirteen year old girl, he really had, but it was hard not to.  
“I know he is. I knew he liked you before I was even sure _you_ liked _him.”_  
That was not a direction Sam had seen this conversation going in his head. Not even close.  
He just stared in shock and waited for his brother to elaborate.  
“Remember when we worked on the set and went out to lunch a couple weeks ago? He was already gone. You must be denser than I thought, if you’ve really been that oblivious to the way he looks and acts around you.”  
Sam did his best to glare at him for being an ass, but it was hard with his heart doing somersaults like this. Not to be cliche or anything.  
“When did you know about me, then?” He had to ask, had to know just who else might have caught on by now. He was sure if Jo or Charlie knew, they would have teased him about it.  
“That day, after you got back from the movie. I have no idea what the hell you guys did, but you’ve been acting different since then. At first, I was a little worried, until I caught on. The dancing thing was really just icing on the cake. The only reason I came to that was because I was expecting one of you to make your move that day. Actually, Cas was too.”  
_The movie._ Of course he hadn’t forgotten. He just didn’t know he’d been acting weird about it.  
“So what should I do about it? I don’t want to mess up the play or anything by saying it at the wrong time or in front of the wrong people. And I definitely don’t want to use the wrong words. What do you think?” He was talking too fast, thoughts pouring into his head.  
“Woah, woah woah. Sam. What I think is that you’re over thinking things. If you really don’t want to mess things up with the play, then you should probably wait until after Friday night to tell him. But the way I see things, is this is just gonna distract you, and there’s really no point in putting it off any longer than you already have. I say, as soon as you have the opportunity to talk to him alone, you should go for it.”  
Sam wasn’t entirely sure that was a good idea. Sure, he wanted to get it off his chest and see what happened, but he was also more nervous about this than he was about the show itself. This was a big deal, even if Gabe _did_ like him back, which he still had his doubts about.  
“And you’re _sure_ he’s gonna say yes when I ask him?”  
Dean just stared at him a minute, like he was trying to figure out if Sam really was the dumbest guy in North America.  
“Yes, Sam. I’m sure. Cas even told me he’s gay, not that I hadn’t already reached that conclusion on my own. He’s interested. Go for it.”  
Sam sighed, relieved about telling Dean, but more nervous than he already was about telling Gabriel. He almost wished that Dean had just told him it was a crush, it would pass. Then he wouldn’t have to tell Gabriel. He’d just wait it out and pretend things were fine until they were. Winchesters had a lot of practice with that.  
But now it was real, and he just had to suck it up and tell him. At least Dean had calmed him down a little in regards to Gabriel’s feelings. Maybe if he told himself enough times that he was gonna say yes, he’d really start to believe it.  
“Thanks, Dean.” He said, getting up and going to his bedroom to smash his face into the pillows and try to sort out how he was gonna do about doing this.  
He thought about sending a text and asking if they could talk after rehearsal, but threw that idea out the window almost as soon as he had it. There were only so many ways to take a message like that.  
He also wasn’t 100% about telling him tomorrow. Friday would probably be better, if he could wait that long. He’d have more time if he waited until after opening night, and once the school week was over, there would be a better opportunity to talk things through. He was new at this, and the whole prospect of dating was more than a little scary. A date, maybe a kiss here or there as they’d been passing through town was one thing. But this had the potential to be a real relationship, and like hell if that didn’t change things. 

He decided to wait, barely making it through dress rehearsal Thursday, with those hands and arms and eyes consuming his every thought. Every time they had a scene together, he thought he was going to break down and tell him right then, in front of everyone.  
It didn’t help either that Gabriel was sitting next to him during a break when he got a text from Dean that said _Did you tell him yet?_  
He turned the phone off as fast as he could, but Gabe had already seen it.  
“Tell who what?” He asked, like he really had no idea what was going on. Hopefully, that was true.  
“Nothing. Something I had to tell Balthazar.” Sam was kind of a terrible liar, but he thought it sounded convincing enough. Gabriel didn’t push the topic.  
When the clock finally ticked over to five, he was all too eager to grab his things and head home, thankful that Dean was able to pick him up today.  
“So, what’d he say?” Dean sounded almost as excited about this as Sam was.  
“I didn’t tell him yet.”  
“What? Seriously? What are you waiting for, an engraved invitation?” Dean sounded honestly offended that Sam really hadn’t asked out his friend.  
“I just didn’t think it was the right time. Trust me, I’ll tell him sometime tomorrow. I don’t think I can last much longer myself.”  
“You’d better. I got ten bucks riding on this.”  
Sam rolled his eyes, even though he knew Dean was kidding. Well, actually, he probably _wasn’t_ kidding about the money thing, but that wasn’t why he was pushing Sam so hard about this. He knew good and well that Sam would be the type to try and ignore this, waiting forever for the right words and the right moment, even if they never came along. Sometimes you had to just go with things, even if they weren’t perfect.

Sam didn’t get the chance to tell him during final dress rehearsal, either. Even though he was part of the cast now, he was still sort of the stage manager of this production, and honestly, some people needed all the help they could get. At least Gabe helped.  
He and Gabriel ran back and forth for the first half hour, helping Ruby mend a tear, telling some Freshmen how to deal with stage fright. They had to talk Jo into running vocal warm ups, which they had to do _while_ they were adjusting the set and reminding people who was responsible for which shifts.  
Once they started going through it though, things went off without a hitch. It was better than anyone could’ve asked for, especially with the last minute situation with Ash. Sam’s skills had improved tremendously since Saturday, and things were going unbelievably well.  
He’d been hoping to talk to Gabriel during their twenty minute dinner break, but that idea went to hell when Jo and Charlie came over and sat next to them, chattering excitedly about the show and how great it was going to be and at least a million other things Sam didn’t care about. At the moment, all he cared about was the way Gabriel was going over his lines again, even though he didn’t need to, mouth moving silently as he read the words.  
After dinner, they were only an hour away from the show, and everyone was in the greenroom, rushing to get their hair and makeup done, leaving Sam in charge of curling Jo’s hair since all the girls were busy and none of the guys knew how.  
Ash showed up about twenty minutes before curtain call, just to wish everyone luck and tell Jo how nice she looked, before going back out to buy tickets and get seated.  
Microphones were checked one more time before the doors were open, and then everyone was standing backstage nervously while people took their seats and Balthazar gave a quick speech about the play.  
“Hey, Sam, don’t worry about it. You’re gonna be great.” Gabe whispered, smiling at him.  
“What?” Sam asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion.  
“You look nervous. Seriously though, it’s gonna be fine. You’re great.”  
“Yeah, okay. Thanks. You too.” He _was_ nervous, just not for the same reasons Gabriel was thinking.  
The lights came on and the curtains were pulled open, as the first notes of the song filled the stage. Gabe grinned and winked at him before running on stage.  
“That’s my cue!”  
Sam sat backstage for the first couple of scenes, watching everyone perform flawlessly. Gabriel was fantastic, all sure and steady as he sang, voice unwavering.  
Sam got so caught up in watching everyone that he nearly missed his part, until Chuck shoved him forward.  
“Hey, you’re that new kid from Chicago, ain’t cha?” Sam delivered, using what might be the worst southern accent in the history of the world. He figured that he was gonna sound stupid either way, so he might as well play it up into a joke. If the audience laughter was anything to go off of, it had been a successful call.  
“I might be.” Gabriel said, stepping closer and looking straight into his eyes, like a challenge.  
“Smartass, aren’t ya?” Sam said, doing his best to ignore that way the stage makeup was bringing out the flecks of amber in his eyes.  
He made it through the next few scenes before heading backstage again, Gabriel joining him while the girls performed.  
Suddenly Gabriel started mouthing along, and it took him a second to realize that Jo was in the middle of ‘Holding Out for a Hero.’  
Gabriel smiled at him, coaxing him into singing along, careful not to be too loud.  
Eventually they went back out for the final couple of scenes that were left before finishing up the first act and drawing the curtains for intermission.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, this is like, the halfway point! Don't worry, you don't have to wait too much longer now. ;)


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Opening night cont.

The cast made their way back into the green room together, everybody complimenting each other and talking about how well their friends had done, chattering away.  
Sam found Gabe across the room and started making his way over, stopping to talk briefly to Jo and Chuck, mentioning how great they’d both been. He would’ve talked to Charlie too, but it looked like she was in the corner, busy flirting with Pamela.  
“Hey! Nice work, Samich!” Gabriel greeted with a grin, pushing the hair out of his eyes and wiping away a bead of sweat from his brow.  
“You too, half pint.” He smirked, trying to play it cool, despite the feeling of his gut twisting around just from watching him.  
“Ready for the finale and everything?” He asked, reminding Sam abruptly of what scene was coming next.  
They had the honky tonk part right after intermission, and then it was dance lessons, all over again. With less touching, yes, but they would be dancing together, nonetheless.  
Much as he might have wanted to, Sam couldn’t tell him now, with everyone around and only a minute or two left before they were back on stage again, so they kept up light conversation until they were pushed back out of the room, people starting to come back in and fill their seats.  
“Oh hey, don’t forget your hat.” Gabriel said, reaching up on his toes to place the gigantic cowboy hat on his head. He hadn’t exactly _forgotten_ about it. Deliberately ignored would be a better way to put it. He sighed and adjusted the strap.  
They took their places on stage, the lights coming back on and the curtains being pulled aside again.  
He delivered his lines as well as he could, and before he knew it, they were shifting the set and he and Gabe were dancing again, and he had to swallow around the lump in his throat, because there was no doubt this time when he looked into Gabriel’s eyes that there was something there.   
He’d just looked at him, same as always, but all of a sudden, everything Dean had been saying clicked into place. Every sappy love song about looking into your lover’s eyes, they were all there. And he knew Gabriel got it, just as well as he did, what that look meant. Hell, half the audience probably would’ve known if they’d been sitting any closer.  
Blush crept up his cheeks as they kept dancing, and he wanted to run off stage after the scene and drag Gabriel with him, but Gabe was still in the next scene. Sam was left to sit backstage alone, wondering what the hell just happened, and more importantly, what was going to happen because of it.  
There was no way of just brushing that off, and it appeared that Gabriel didn’t want to anyways. He had been planning on asking him out right after the show, but with just a look, it seemed he was beaten to the punch.  
As soon as he could, Gabriel all but ran back, finding him in the back corner and whispering quickly, trying to stay quiet enough that they wouldn’t bring attention to themselves.  
“So I guess my plans for asking you out aren’t really necessary now?” Sam asked, breathing out a laugh while Gabriel shook his head.  
“I’ve been meaning to do that for a while myself. Didn’t know if you’d return the notion.”  
Sam just nodded, grinning ear to ear, glad that they were finally on the same page.   
“Yeah. Guess I do.” He laughed. He was none too eager to have Gabriel dragged away from him again thirty seconds later for another musical number. Looking around, he decided that as dark as it was, nobody could see them anyway, and he leaned in for an impulsive kiss before Gabe left.  
Sam just stood there, touching his lips and thinking about how it had felt. It technically wasn’t his first kiss, but it felt like he was experiencing it all over again. Gabriel’s lips were soft, pliant. He smelled like mint shampoo and chocolate.  
They changed into their suits quickly for the final scene, and while dancing with Charlie was nice, he didn’t think anyone could really compare to Gabriel. Even if their first real slow dance had been more awkward than intimate.  
The lights went down, and it was over. Opening night was already done, just like that.  
Everyone went to their side backstage for the bow, least important to most important characters going out in order, until Charlie and Jo were the only ones left on one side, Gabe and Sam on the other.  
Sam gave Gabriel’s hand a quick squeeze before running out to meet Charlie, grabbing her hand and swooping down, straightening up again and looking out at the audience.  
It was easy to find Dean and Cas in the audience, considering the fact that they were wolf whistling and clapping like morons.  
He and Charlie stepped back while Gabriel and Jo came out, receiving a standing ovation, before everyone walked forwards and joined hands for the final bow.  
Gabriel’s hand fit into his, just like he remembered it, except maybe a little sweatier. But it was nice. He squeezed it tightly before letting go, as everyone left out the main exits to meet with the audience afterwards. Dean and Cas were the first to come over to them once they got there.  
“Nice job, you guys.” Dean said, clapping Sam on the shoulder and winking at him.  
Sam shot him a look not to push it right now, and Dean nodded in understanding.  
They stepped aside as a couple others came to talk to them, mostly classmates.  
“Hey, we were talking about going to Dairy Queen after we get cleaned up. You and Cas wanna head over now and get us a seat? I’m sure it’ll be packed by the time we finish.” Sam said, hoping to talk to Gabriel at least a little bit in the car on the way there.  
“Yeah, no problem.” Dean said, leaving with Cas in tow right before Ellen came over, dragging a disgruntled looking Jo along with her.  
She insisted on taking pictures of the three of them together, telling them how great it had been and how much she liked it.  
Sam tried to act annoyed, but he couldn’t help smiling at her as she snapped away.

Once the audience members cleared out, most of the cast had already left. There weren’t as many people coming to talk to the smaller roles, and they’d ducked out early.  
Sam and Gabe were alone when they got to the dressing room, and deciding that nobody else was going to come in, Sam pulled him into another kiss, like he’d been aching to do since the last one. Gabe reciprocated happily, leaning into him and threading his hand through Sam’s hair.  
Once he pulled away, Sam realized that now they were gonna have to get shirtless and in their underwear so they could change clothes.   
No point in putting it off, Sam pulled off his shirt, revealing his fit, slightly muscular stomach, as Gabriel reached to remove his own.  
Gabriel was thinner than he’d expected. Not scrawny, really, but lean. Slim.   
His torso was completely flat, all the way down to his hip bones, which jutted out temptingly just above the waistband of his jeans.  
Sam didn’t even realize he was staring until Gabriel reached down to put his other shirt on.  
“What?” Gabe asked self consciously, stretching his arms into the sleeves.  
“Nothing. You’re just...beautiful.” Sam replied honestly. He wasn’t sure that ‘beautiful’ was exactly the right word for it, but it might be a little too early to be throwing around words like ‘sexy.’  
Gabriel smiled, looking a little relieved, though not entirely convinced.  
“That’s a pretty big compliment, coming from Adonis himself over here.” He gestured to Sam, who was turning crimson as he spoke.  
He changed back into his jeans and pulled on the grey hoodie he’d worn to school that day, as Gabriel put on his own clothes as well.  
They wiped the stage makeup off, walking out to the empty parking lot together, and when he felt a hand reaching out for his, Sam didn’t hesitate to take it, smiling to himself.  
They let go and climbed into the car, and as little as they wanted to, both of them knew that they’d have to talk about this sooner or later.  
Gabriel turned the key in the ignition, turning to look over his shoulder even though the place was vacant.  
“So...” Sam said, clearing his throat. “Is that it? Are we dating now? Does this make us boyfriends?”  
Gabe laughed a minute, pulling out of the lot and onto the main road.  
“I guess, if you want, yeah. Absolutely.”  
He liked the sound of that answer.  
“Should we start telling people then? Dean and Cas already know.”  
Gabe had to think about that one for a minute.  
“Um, maybe hold off a little bit on telling _everyone_ , since we’ve been together for roughly ten minutes now. I like you, but there’ll be plenty of time later. There’s no point in trying to keep it from our brothers, though, so we might as well be up front about it with them.”  
“Okay. I’m cool with that. By the way, this might come out weird, but this sort of thing is pretty new to me. Like, I haven’t really been in an honest-to-god relationship before, with all the moving around and everything. So if I mess up or do something weird, just, uh, bear with me. I’m new at this.”  
Gabriel smiled understandingly.  
“So, Dean seems pretty cool with the fact that you’re dating a guy?”  
He didn’t really ask the question specifically, but Sam got the point.  
“I figured out I was bi in about seventh grade. I knew I couldn’t really tell my dad, but I could always come to Dean with stuff like that. When I told him, all he’d said was he didn’t care who I dated, so long as they were good to me and treated me right. He’s sappier than you’d think, believe it or not.” Sam smiled at the memory. He hadn’t even been worried about telling him. Dean was always there for him, and always would be. “What about you?”  
“I’m gay. Told my dad a few years ago. He hasn’t exactly made his peace with the fact, but this won’t come as a surprise either. I actually told Cas before my dad, wanted him to be the first to know. He just hugged me and said basically the same as Dean.”  
Well, it was too bad about his dad, but at least he knew. Sam had been too scared to tell John, afraid of what he’d do or say if he ever found out.   
They pulled into the Dairy Queen parking lot, finding an empty spot close to the impala.  
They placed their orders at the counter and walked towards the back, finding Dean and Cas in the corner booth eating banana splits.  
“Hola, mis amigos.” Gabriel said, sliding in next to Sam.  
Dean and Cas turned to them expectantly, attention focused.  
Gabriel rolled his eyes, wiping some whipped cream off Cas’ cheek, deciding to let Sam do the talking.  
“Yes, we’re together. No, we’re not telling anybody else right now.” He was straight forward and to the point, not missing their smiles as he spoke.  
“Congratulations, you guys.” Dean said around a bite of ice cream.  
Cas nodded in agreement, digging into his split like it would disappear if he let it sit too long.  
Gabe put his hand on Sam’s leg under the table, and he figured that since nobody could see them anyway, it was a welcome presence.  
They finished their desserts and stayed there talking and laughing, until the manager told them it was closing time and they had to leave, or at least take it to the parking lot so she could clean up.  
They probably would’ve stuck around and talked out there all night, but they were tired, and it was cold, and Sam and Gabriel had another show to do the next night, so they parted ways and went home. Sam had to admit, he slept better than he had in ages.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well look at that. They actually did it.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> mostly just cute garbage and fluff

Sam woke up the next morning to a buzzing noise and a text from Gabriel. He rubbed his eyes, reaching over to grab his phone off the nightstand, flipping to his messages.  
_Morning, sunshine_  
What a freaking loser. _Sunshine? Really, Gabriel?_ Sam smiled at it despite himself, typing out a quick response before getting up to go to the kitchen.  
_Good morning_  
He thought about adding a ‘babe’ to the end, but sent it without, deciding that it was probably too soon for that. Maybe.  
“Hey, Sammy.” Dean said from his place at the kitchen table, fork in one hand and coffee in the other. “Did you sleep well? Dream about shrimpy boys with pretty smiles?” He teased.  
Sam got another message.  
_Excited for the show tonight?_  
“Of course. Did you dream about shiny black cars so old they don’t even have CD players?” It really wasn’t even a joke anymore. Dean was in a very loving and committed relationship with the impala. He was probably going to be the first man to legally marry a car.  
“You know it, baby.” He took a sip of coffee while Sam texted back.  
_Can’t wait :)_  
“Oooh, who are ya texting? Is it _him?”_ Dean said, wiggling his eyebrows. He just loved being an ass sometimes.  
“Perhaps.”  
“What’s he talking about? Is it _steamy?”_  
Sam nodded, deciding that if he wanted to make this uncomfortable, then two could play at that game.  
“Well, if you really want to know, he’s just been telling me all about how much he wants me to put my big-”  
“That’s gross, Sammy. You’re too young for that. You’re my sweet, innocent little brother, you’re not allowed to have those thoughts. Go wash your mouth out with soap. That’s nasty.”  
Sam just laughed and rolled his eyes, pouring a glass of orange juice and sitting down on the other side of the table.

Saturday morning and afternoon were relatively uneventful, filled with homework and reruns of Two and a Half Men, until Gabriel picked him up at four thirty for the show. Technically they didn’t have to be there until a quarter to six, but this way there was time to grab some food before then.  
“What’s cookin’ good lookin’?” Gabe said as he slid in, smirking slightly.  
“Oh my god. Never say that again.” Sam sounded absolutely disgusted by the phrase.  
Gabriel put his hands up in surrender before placing them back on the wheel.  
“Fine. How are you doing, good lookin’?”  
Sam groaned internally. _What would possess a person to say such a thing? What did he see in this weirdo?_ Oh right. Everything.  
“I’m lovely. How are you?”  
“Fantastic. Where do you wanna go for dinner?”  
Who cared, honestly.  
“Wherever’s good with me.” He said, reaching over to start the radio. Of course it started playing One Direction. What else would he expect?

They pulled into a Subway and ordered, and Gabriel wrinkled his nose in disgust when Sam dared to put olives on his sandwich, as though it were some sort of crime. It was kinda cute.  
They talked aimlessly as they ate, about the play and their brothers and a million other things. Just hearing his voice was nice, honestly.  
They left for the school, getting there way before they were needed, which left them alone together in the dressing room once again, and they probably would have made out if it weren’t for the fact that anyone could walk in at any time now. That would be a rather compromising situation, and awkward as hell for everyone involved.  
It was still only five thirty when they walked out, and Chuck seemed to be only other person who was there yet.  
“Hey guys.” He looked up briefly from whatever he was reading and waved at them.  
Sam waved back, leading Gabriel into the thankfully deserted green room.  
He barely shut the door behind him before there were lips pressed against his, pushing him against the door.  
By the time they broke apart, he was breathing heavy, smiling stupidly. Way to go, distracting him from what he’d been meaning to talk about.  
“Hey, um, Gabriel?”  
“Yeah?” He asked, leaning in and playing with Sam’s hair.  
“There was one thing we kinda forgot to talk about last night…”  
“And what would that be?”  
“Well,” Sam started, sure that this was gonna come out even weirder than it had to. “Like I said, I’m new at this. I’m not sure about how fast things should be moving or anything, and I just wanna make sure you’ll talk to me, make sure we’re on the same page about that stuff. I’m kind of trusting you to know about this stuff.”  
“Of course. I’m not gonna rush into anything you’re not ready for. As long as you’re alright with kissing and hand holding and dancing, that’s good enough for me. We can wait however long you want on everything else.”  
Sam smiled, grateful that Gabe was so understanding about things.  
“We should probably go back out, before Chuck starts looking for us or something.”  
Gabe pulled up for one more quick kiss before they left.

He had to keep reminding himself not to reach out and grab Gabriel’s hand as they walked around, no matter how much he wanted to. They’d decided to wait and tell everyone at the cast party next Sunday, and until then, just keep things low key, between themselves and their brothers only.  
Everyone got costumed and made up quickly for another wonderful night of singing and dancing, and after how successful the night before had been, they were pretty confident that tonight would be just as good, if not better. There was plenty of time spent just sitting around and talking before the doors even opened.  
Somebody turned on their ipod and was playing all the greatest hits of Bowling for Soup, and Charlie pulled out a box of Cards Against Humanity and got a game going with Sam, Gabe, Pamela, Jo, Meg and herself.  
Gabriel won easily, dirty sense of humor finally paying off. If Sam ever met a funnier person in his life, it would be a miracle.  
Balthazar came in to get them ten minutes before it started, making sure everyone was ready and vocal warm ups had been taken care of, before leading everyone out of the room and shutting off the lights behind them.  
Backstage again, they were surrounded by darkness, and it was so quiet you could hear people’s breathing.  
“This is my fourth show here, and I just have to hand it to these kids.” Balthazar’s accent was rich as ever, sounding damn near fake. “They’re some of the best I’ve worked with in my career. They’re all so dedicated, and interesting, and it’s really been an honor to work with them.”  
Well, that was funny, considering he’d made it to rehearsals roughly twice.  
“We hope you’ll all enjoy the show.”  
Before he knew it, Gabriel was gone again, gliding across the stage effortlessly. He moved like there was nothing holding him back, not even gravity. Like this was all second nature to him.  
Sam’s eyes never left him as he walked onto the stage, executing his scenes even better than last time. The audience was bigger tonight, and they were more enthusiastic, too.  
They somehow managed to sneak off during intermission to the dressing room again. Hopefully they wouldn’t be missed too much.  
Sam was lucky he checked his phone when he did. They’d been so busy messing around that they almost missed their call, and they had to rush to make it back in time, being careful to make sure they didn’t look too suspicious.  
“Where have you been?” Charlie asked when he came up next to her, trying hard to keep his cool and play it off.  
“What do you mean? I was in the green room.”  
“I didn’t see you.”  
Sam was just going to make up some bullshit excuse, but honestly, what was he gonna say? She must’ve missed him? He was a head taller than most of the people there.  
He was saved by the bell when the music began and the lights turned on, cutting their delightful conversation short. Hopefully she’d forget this ever happened.

The dancing scene was better now. They’d both been more than a little distracted the first time, but tonight they fell into it easily.  
Sam stole the show with ‘Mama Says,’ to the point where he could even hear the people backstage laughing. He didn’t think he was anywhere near as funny as Gabriel, but apparently he thought differently.  
“Oh my god Sam, you’re killing me. That _accent.”_ Gabriel was still laughing while they put on their suits, Sam fixing his tie for him.  
The set for the finale was his favorite. There were twinkle lights strung across the walls, and there were balloons all over the place. It was nothing like the few parties he’d been to, where there were drunk kids passed out in the halls and obnoxious rap blaring from somewhere in the basement. It looked like a real, formal dance. The kind Sam would actually want to go to.  
When they walked out, he still had no idea how the girls managed to change into their dresses so quickly, or dance around in those heels. Some things were just a mystery to him.  
Dean and Cas were there again, along with Bobby this time.  
Once they were out in the waiting area again, Sam was suddenly cold. Now that they were no longer under the stage lights, it felt like stepping out of a hot shower.  
He loosened his tie, shaking hands with Bobby and introducing him and Gabe. He thought about presenting him as his boyfriend, because Bobby wouldn’t care, and he might as well be family. There were too many people around to overhear though, so he just stuck with friend when he introduced them.  
Bobby would find out eventually, and when he did, he’d probably call Sam an idjit for not telling him sooner, and then just smile and say he was happy for him. Because that’s what family did. John Winchester probably would’ve thrown his own son out on the streets if he’d known, but Bobby was sure to be supportive and helpful as always.  
They weren’t alone when they went in to change this time, and while it was disappointing, it probably made things significantly more efficient, since they were actually focused on their clothes for once.  
They were, however, alone in the bathroom while they took off their makeup, Sam reaching over to catch a smudge Gabriel had missed here or there, hand lingering just slightly longer than necessary as he did so.  
Dean and Cas were engrossed in some discussion when they found them outside, talking animatedly about who knows what.  
It was cold, cold enough for Gabe to regret wearing just a t-shirt with no jacket. Seeming to read his mind, Sam shrugged out of his flannel and wrapped it around his shoulders. He put his arms through the sleeves, warm, fuzzy, and so long they reached down to his fingertips. It smelled like Sam- Like coffee and shampoo and new books. He wrapped it a little tighter.  
Their brothers looked up, smiling as they approached, Gabriel practically drowning in Sam’s shirt. (Which he had no intention of giving back, by the way.)  
Dean straightened up, telling Cas that they would have to finish the conversation tomorrow before saying goodnight and reaching into his pocket for the keys.  
“Goodnight, Gabriel.” Sam said, not completely sure how he or their brothers felt about public displays of affection.  
“Goodnight.” Gabriel said, settling for a hug instead of a kiss, and maybe holding on a little bit too long. Sam didn’t seem to mind it at all.  
Pulling away, Sam rubbed his back fondly before walking off, jogging a little to catch up with Dean.

“Um, Gabriel?” Cas asked, after the Winchesters got in the car.  
“Yeah?”  
“Are you gonna sit here and stare at Sam all night, or are you actually gonna drive me home?”  
“Shut up.” Gabriel said, though he smiled fondly at him nonetheless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aww. Adorable.
> 
> (I wanted to update on time so I'm editing this chapter at 1 am, please let me know if there are mistakes)


	8. Chapter 8

Sunday morning, Sam had to force himself to get out of bed earlier, taking a shower and getting dressed so he could be ready for their matinee performance.  
One good thing did come from that, though, and that was waking up first. There was still hot water for his shower, and when he checked his messages, Gabriel still hadn’t texted him yet, so he got first call on that, too.  
 _Good morning, sleeping beauty_  
He didn’t really know if Gabe was still asleep, all he knew was that he hadn’t texted him yet. But from what he could gather about the morning routine that they were already falling into, that seemed to be one of the first things he did.  
he rubbed his hair until it was somewhat dry, wrapping a towel around his waist before returning to his bedroom and sitting down.  
He unlocked his cell again when the screen lit up, and he chuckled slightly at the response.  
 _Same to you, prince Philip_  
How Gabriel knew the name of the prince right off the bat like that, Sam had no idea. But he liked to think that Gabe spent his free time watching old Disney movies, and as weird as he was, it was as likely a theory as any.  
Before he could think of something to reply, he got another text from Gabe.  
 _You busy after the show today? ‘Cause we’re still gonna have the whole evening to hang out, if you want._  
Maybe the matinee performance wasn’t a bad thing after all.  
 _I’m free. What did you have in mind?_  
He wanted it to be a couple-y sort of date, if it could be, but that probably meant they’d have to find somewhere that people they knew wouldn’t be. It wasn’t the end of the world if anybody found out, of course, but it would be nice to be able to come out with it on their own accord, how and when they chose.  
 _Dinner somewhere? I know a nice pizza restaurant a city over._  
It sounded like Gabriel was thinking the same way Sam was, and pizza was always good.  
 _Ok by me. We’ll just leave after the play’s over?_  
He wished he’d have the chance to clean up a little first, look nice and fix his hair and everything, but that probably wasn’t going to happen.  
 _Yeah, I think Cas has homework and stuff today anyway._  
Sam heard the floor creak, signalling that his brother was finally up. It was about damn time.  
“Dean?” He ducked his head around the corner. Sam still hadn’t put on clothes yet, and a drop of water slid from his hair onto the carpet.  
“Yeah?” He asked sleepily, stifling a yawn.  
“I’m gonna go out with Gabe after the show today. We’re going out for dinner. Just a head’s up.”  
Dean smiled, still trying to wake up.  
“Okay, but I expect you home no later than nine. It’s a school night, and if you miss curfew, I will drag your ass home.” He said it in a joking way, but Sam still got the point about not staying out too late with school the next day. He hadn’t really been planning to anyhow.

Sunday performances were, unfortunately, a little duller than others. It was earlier, and not as many people came to them. Still, they put on another great show, and it was fun, even with the lack of audience participation.  
Afterwards, Sam was all too eager to change and get out of there, not caring a whole lot about the fact that it was _way_ too early to be eating dinner. Gabriel didn’t seem to care much either. They were teenage boys, they could always eat.  
Sam could smell the pizza from a mile away, and he didn’t even know he was that hungry until then. The building was small, and nearly empty at four o’clock on a Sunday.   
They were seated at a booth in the back, and neither knew the handful or so of other patrons around them, so they could feel free to just let this be what it was- A date.  
“So, what’s new in your life?” Sam asked after they placed their drink orders, Gabriel still skimming the menu idly.  
“Hmm. Well, Michael’s on spring break next week. If I can talk him into coming to the show, I’ll introduce the two of you.”  
That would be nice, Sam thought. Getting to know the rest of Gabriel’s family (the members besides Cas, that is,) was probably important. There wasn’t so much of that to do on his side.  
They got a large pepperoni to split, cheese so stringy you could choke on it. It was freaking delicious.  
“So, just you and Dean, then? Or are there any distant relatives I haven’t heard of yet?”  
“None by blood.” Sam said, taking a sip of Sprite.  
“But more like Bobby and Ellen?”  
“Kind of. None of them are quite as close, but I guess we still kind of consider them family.”  
“Tell me about them.”  
Gabriel’s interest in his life really was amazing. He knew that’s how relationships were supposed to work, but still. He always just kind of felt like he was strange or boring, like he shouldn’t be the focus of attention.  
“Well, there’s Rufus. He’s a friend of Bobby’s, kind of like an uncle figure I suppose. There’s Dean’s old girlfriend Cassie, who was more like a sister than an actual girlfriend. I haven’t talked to her in a while. And there’s Gordon. He worked with my dad. I kind of hated him, but he was around a lot, so he still played a part in my childhood.”  
Gabriel was listening intently, hanging on every word.  
“So what was it like, moving around all the time? Cause I’ve lived in this dinky little town my whole life, and I gotta say, it kinda sucks ass.”  
“Well, dad would usually rent a house for a few months, get Dean and I enrolled in a school somewhere, and then he’d be in and out until the lease was over, then we’d pack up and leave again. It was hard, always just having made connections and friends somewhere, just to have them taken away again. Always being the new kid, walking in halfway through the school year with no idea what they’d been teaching in that particular school. Before we came here, my had last school had actually been kind of miserable. Made enemies with the wrong people, life was hell for a little while.   
I hated moving around like we did, always being alone, always being a bit of a freak. Dean did his best to make it better, though.”  
Gabriel looked sad, like he wanted to take back all those years and give Sam’s childhood back to him.  
“What about you? You said something a while back about letting Cas have a childhood because at least one of you should. What was that about?”  
After taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly, and cracking his knuckles like Gabe always did when he was uncomfortable, he started to explain.  
“Okay...You know how I said my mom died in childbirth with Cas? When I was about three?”  
“Yeah.”  
“Well, there’s more to it than that. A lot, actually. See, my dad wasn’t always home either. Used to travel the country, spreading God’s word or some bullshit. When my mom went into labor, he wasn’t there. Michael was thirteen, so he couldn’t exactly drive her to the hospital, and the phone wasn’t working to call an ambulance. It was even more rural here back then, and we lived too far for him to go get the neighbors. It was too late, she was already having contractions pretty frequently. So, she did her best to talk him through things, trying to stay calm, although without pain medication it must’ve been pretty difficult.”  
He stopped for a drink before continuing.  
“So Mike, who was the same age Cas is now, wound up delivering him. He watched when mom died. I wasn’t exactly a big help, but I was still there. I remember everything. I remember him telling me to wait at the house and take care of Cas while he ran to get help, from police or something.  
And then it was just me, a three year old who’d just watched his mom die, holding a crying newborn, with no adult supervision, or even Michael.  
I just sat there and cried with him for what must’ve been hours before Mike came back, leading whoever he’d brought to help back into mom’s room. Our dad had been notified, and he was home the next day. But it was already too late. Michael was in therapy for years, and I know he still gets nightmares sometimes, though they’re not as bad as they used to be.  
Cas thinks she died in a car accident. Doesn’t know that the last word out of her mouth before she stopped breathing was his name.”  
Sam didn’t even know what to say. How do you respond to a story like that? The more he got to know him, the more he wondered how Gabriel managed to stay so positive and lively and not just completely break down and shut himself away from the world. If Sam was in his shoes, he didn’t think he could do it. Now he understood the protectiveness of Cas even more, though. The story sounded a little too similar to his and Dean’s, seeing more of his older brother in Gabriel.  
He just stretched his arm out across the table, grabbing Gabe’s hand and holding it tight. He hadn’t meant to bring up such a painful memory, but at least now he knew. He was digging a little more into the complicated backstory of Gabriel. It seemed like the further he chiseled, the more the walls seemed to crumble down around him.  
“Hey, Gabriel? Just so you know, if you ever need to talk about this kind of thing, or anything else, I’m always here. I don’t know how long you’ve been carrying that around, but I don’t want you to have to keep anything like that to yourself if you don’t want to.”  
Gabriel just nodded, eyes far off, but he squeezed Sam’s hand back in response.  
When the check came, Sam grabbed it before Gabriel could even think about picking up the tab. He could get the next one.  
“You know, I feel like whenever we hang out, something like this always happens. Maybe next week we should just go bowling or something.” Sam said, in a half-assed attempt at lightening the mood.  
Gabriel smiled slightly, still kind of intense from earlier, not without reason.  
They drove home, and Sam absently noticed that his shirt was still sitting in the backseat from the night before. If Gabriel liked it, he could keep it. There were very few things Sam wouldn’t do right now to make him happy.  
He was home well before nine, Dean didn’t even have the chance to worry. He leaned in for a goodbye kiss before getting out and walking up to the apartment, hoping that Dean didn’t ask too much in regards to the details of their date.  
He wasn’t really planning on telling that story to anyone, especially not without permission. He wasn’t quite as eager to meet Michael anymore, either.

Sam slept well, and the last thing he wanted to do in the morning was get ready to go back to school, even if it did mean seeing Gabriel again. He wished they actually had some classes together, so he didn’t have to seek him out in the hallways just to say hi. Still, just seeing him in passing made Sam unreasonably happy, so he’d take whatever interaction he could get.   
Monday transitioned to Tuesday, then Wednesday, and Sam and Gabe fell into a schedule of texting each other every morning before school, and every night before bed. He mostly talked about how Michael was, now that he was home from college for the next week.  
Apparently the oldest Novak child was working on his final year of a pharmaceutical degree. The way he talked about it, Gabe made it sound like he was gonna cure cancer. Maybe he was.  
Gabriel also informed him that not only would Michael be coming to the play on Friday, but so would their father, which gave Sam a whole new set of things to be nervous about. Michael was one thing, and even though he sounded more than a little damaged, Sam could handle that. He sounded nice enough. But their father, on the other hand, was not someone he looked forward to getting to know.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (I kinda almost forgot to post this today oops)


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam meets the rest of the Novak fam

By the time Friday rolled around, Sam wanted nothing more than for Ash to have never broken his leg. He wanted to meet Gabriel’s family, he just...wished it wasn’t _this_ particular family. They didn’t sound like the kind of people he was comfortable with.  
“So what’re Michael and your dad like? Anything that I should or shouldn’t do tonight?” Sam asked. He couldn’t help being nervous. He wanted to make a good impression on the rest of Gabriel’s family. Thank god Cas already liked him, because honestly, if he didn’t, Gabriel probably wouldn’t have dated him in the first place. The more he saw and heard from the two of them, the closer he realized Cas and Gabe really were. Their relationship was on a level rivalling his and Dean’s own.  
“You’re gonna be fine. Michael’s not going to judge you at all. He’s probably gonna be too busy thinking about whatever the hell it is he’s doing in school to even pay that much attention. And my dad….Well, just don’t bring up anything related to religion. If you let it slip that you’re agnostic, he’ll try to convert you.”

They’d decided that it would just be better to go to dinner after the show, so that they could discuss things and get to know each other more privately, but that meant that there would be a lot more time than if they were just meeting briefly after the play.  
It really sucked that Gabriel’s father was not only extremely evangelical, but a _traveling preacher_ no less. Sam wondered sometimes if his son’s sexuality ever came up in sermons. He knew christians weren’t supposed to judge, but he also knew that a lot did, and that was probably the main reason that gay marriage was still illegal in so many states. Gabriel’s father sounded like he was one of _those_ kinds of christians.  
Sam tugged absently on his shirt cuffs, while they waited behind the curtain to get their microphones checked.  
“C’mon Sam, you’ll be fine. How could anyone not love you?” Gabe sounded so sure of the fact that Sam couldn’t honestly tell if he was joking or not, but he thought that he might actually be telling the truth here.  
“Sam!” Kevin called out, switching on mic number seven.  
Sam checked to see if anyone was around quickly before giving Gabriel a kiss on the cheek, parting the curtains and walking to the front of the stage.  
After everything was good to go for the show, they went back to the dressing room, sure that they wouldn’t be missed for at least a _little while._  
Of course it was empty when they got there, since everyone was already in their costumes and makeup, over in the green room. If they needed to make up some bullshit excuse about why they were gone, then that’s what they’d do. He just needed to talk to him a little more.  
“So you’re sure meeting your dad and brother won’t be a big deal? I gotta admit, I wish Cas was joining us.”  
“Yeah, it’ll be fine. I do, too. If Cas didn’t have to work on his speech thing, I’m sure he would’ve come.”  
Sam just would’ve prefered if there was at least _someone_ there that already liked him, besides Gabriel, of course.

They managed to make it through the play perfectly again, and Sam was honestly starting to wonder if witchcraft was involved here, because in theater, even professional, let alone high school, things _always_ went wrong. This was going just too well.  
Dean wasn’t there tonight either, since he wouldn’t be driving Sam home anyhow, and he didn’t want to get in the way.  
Once they went out to the hallway afterwards, Mike and Gabe’s dad were already waiting over by the drinking fountains, but before they could even get there, Sam and Gabe were stopped by at least three people they didn’t even know, telling them how great they’d done. They thanked them graciously before making their way through the rest of the crowd and over to the remaining half of the Novak family.  
Sam almost laughed when he saw them, but refrained from doing so. Gabriel’s father was about Sam’s height, and Michael was easily over six feet tall, at least. He’d even noticed that Cas was getting close to Gabriel’s height now. Gabe had to look pretty far up to make eye contact. He clearly did not get his height from the paternal side.  
They were both dressed so formally, standing so straight. They looked like statues, or soldiers at attention. It was unnerving.  
“Dad, Mikey, this is Sam. Sam, this is my dad and brother.” Gabriel made introductions, now starting to sound almost as nervous as Sam felt.  
Sam stuck out his hand to shake, which Michael did first, then Gabriel’s father, though he did so a little more reluctantly.  
Gabriel had already told them that he and Sam were dating, but he’d also mentioned the fact that their classmates didn’t know about it. Neither seemed too surprised or offended when they found out that Castiel already knew.  
“So we’ve gotta go change and everything, but we’ll meet you over at the Cheesecake Factory in like twenty minutes, half an hour.” Gabriel said, tucking his too-long hair behind an ear.  
His family just nodded in understanding and left.  
“Oh my god.” Sam said as they went back to get ready. “Do they ever talk? ‘Cause if not, dinner’s gonna be awfully quiet.”  
Gabriel didn’t answer him, which probably wasn’t a good thing. Michael at least had seemed nice. Not really warm and welcoming, but nice. Sam wasn’t sure what to make of their father yet, though.  
Gabriel drove them over silently, leaning over and giving a quick ‘good luck’ kiss before going inside.  
The others were already seated at a little table towards the back, where both were focused intensely on their water and not talking to each other, which would be weird, if Sam hadn’t already expected it. They seemed to be a little on the ‘reserved’ side.  
They walked over and took their seats across from them, joining hands underneath the table as subtly as possible. Gabriel gave Sam’s a quick squeeze when his dad opened his mouth to speak.  
“So, Sam. Gabriel tells me you two met working on this play. Are you in the same grade then, or different?”  
Well, at least that was a question he could answer.  
“Same year. We apparently had a class together sometime as Sophomores, but it was a pretty big group, so we never really met there.” They’d figured that out on Wednesday, when Sam started telling a story about the kid in his old art class who’d managed to tip over an entire cart of pottery. Gabriel was that kid.  
“And you’ve been dating for..six days now?” Sam tried not to cringe at the face he made when he said the word ‘dating.’  
“Um. Yes. We may as well have been together for the better part of the month, though.”  
That probably wasn’t the right thing to say. Gabe’s dad just raised his eyebrow, but made no comment. Sam Winchester had the equivalent social skills of a rubber duck.  
“And your family is aware of your...relationship?”  
“It’s just me and my brother, and yes, Dean knows.”  
“Just you and your brother?” He said it like perhaps he thought he hadn’t heard right.  
“Our parents are both deceased. He’s my legal guardian.” Sam explained.  
That only earned him a nod, and then Michael said his first real words of the evening.  
“How- How...Did it happen? If you don’t mind me asking.” He looked unsure of himself, but Sam thought it was an understandable thing to ask, considering what Gabriel had told him Sunday.  
“Well, my mom died in a fire when I was still a baby. I didn’t know her, and Dean was still pretty little. My dad was in a car accident a couple of years ago.”  
The more he thought about it, the more he realized that their home situations were almost shockingly similar, Gabriel being Dean and Sam being Cas, except Sam didn’t have Michael, and his dad wasn’t around anymore.  
Michael smiled sadly at him, a look of understanding softening his hard features. He looked a lot like his father- Dark hair and a sharp nose, and a lot of similar mannerisms. Sam could see the resemblance in Cas, too. The only thing he could see in Gabriel that looked like the rest of his family was that Cas had his smile. He couldn’t tell if the other’s were the same, since he had yet to see either party so much as smirk.  
Once drinks came and they ordered their food, the conversation topic changed to Michael and his studies, and Sam was grateful to have the attention taken off of himself, at least for the time being. Michael seemed like a really good kid. Damaged? Absolutely. But nice, and smart, and polite, too.  
Gabe’s dad wasn’t much a talker, he discovered quickly, which honestly suited Sam just fine. The less he spoke, the less opportunity there was for him to fuck things up.  
After the meal was over and they parted ways for the night, except for Gabriel who still had to drive Sam home, they awkwardly gave their goodbyes.  
Gabriel’s father gave some rather unexpected final words, however. He cleared his throat and shifted his feet awkwardly.  
“While I can’t say that I completely agree with what you two are doing, I think you’re a good kid, Sam. If my son’s going to be dating another boy, then I have to say, I’m glad it’s you.”  
It wasn’t the best way he could have put it, but he was trying, and Sam knew it was a compliment.

“Hey, you did it!” Gabriel said once they were seated back in his car and heading towards the apartment.  
“Yeah. I take it that reaction wasn’t worse than you were expecting?”  
“Not at all. Actually, that was pretty out of character. I know it doesn’t seem like it, but he likes you. Maybe not your sexual orientation, but at least as a person he does. And Michael does, too.”  
Sam smiled, glad that Michael had been there. He wasn’t entirely sure this meeting would have gone so well without him to take some of the pressure off.

Dean was still up waiting when he walked through the door, eager to hear how things had gone.  
“Things were good. The rest of the family’s not quite as cool as Gabe and Cas, but Michael’s a pretty decent guy. I think it went okay.”  
Dean smiled at him, glad that things had gone well, and that he wasn’t being banished from seeing Gabe or anything like that.  
“I think I’m gonna go to bed. Goodnight, Dean.”  
“Night, Sammy.” He said with a smile, stifling a yawn of his own.

Saturday’s performance went by in a flash, and then it was suddenly Sunday, and the cast party was right after set strike.  
They’d already gone over how they were gonna tell people, but that didn’t keep Sam from being jittery all through the morning and afternoon.  
Their final performance had gone spectacularly, and a journalist from the local paper stopped to take a few pictures for the Monday paper before everyone changed and started taking things down.  
He couldn’t really believe it was over. Sam was always surprised at how fast these things ended, and this one was no different. He was sad that it was over, but at the same time, if it hadn’t been for the play, he and Gabriel might not have gotten together in the first place.  
They took things down, and Sam got a bag full of costumes to bring home and wash, before everyone gathered in the cafeteria for the party.  
There was food everywhere, and all the crew members made it to the party, too. Even Ash managed to make an appearance, which was good, because then they could tell him first hand, too.  
Once everyone was seated at the giant table they’d pushed together, Sam and Gabriel waited patiently for the right opportunity to make their announcement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Almost done! There's for sure one more chapter, although I might make that two. (Also, a very happy birthday to Sam Winchester.)  
> :)


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coming forward & prom night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this is it! Hope you all enjoy.   
> The sexy stuff is marked at the beggining and the end with an "x", should you want to avoid it

They waited. And waited. Everyone was a little too caught up in their own conversations to really pay attention to Sam and Gabe enough to make the announcement. Gabriel even tried to get everyone to listen, several times actually, but it wasn’t working. So, being Gabriel, he came up with a very effective, and somewhat shocking plan B.  
With no discussing it beforehand, he abruptly stood up and motioned for Sam to do the same. They walked silently to the head of the table, where he promptly stretched up and kissed him, in front of everybody. This was not how it was supposed to go _at all._  
After about five seconds, the room was dead silent. He pulled away slowly, and Sam was blushing furiously.  
“Well, it’s about damn time.” Jo said finally, grinning at them. Slowly, the rest of the table started to clap, and Sam could swear he saw at least three people exchanging money. The attention didn’t exactly make Sam any less embarrassed, but he was glad at least that nobody had a problem with it. Not that that would have really changed anything.  
He sighed happily, leaning into Gabe’s side when they sat back down.  
Everyone had questions, mostly about how long they’d been together, and even Ash offered his congratulations. Charlie and Pam asked if they wanted to go on a double date sometime, which they warily accepted, curious as to what the two may have in mind.  
So now everyone knew. Nobody hated them for it, or thought it was weird, or anything of the kind. They were just happy for them.  
It was relieving, having everything out in the open, and he couldn’t even be sad about the end of the play right now. Things were just too good.

EPILOGUE:

Sam straightened his cherry red necktie, turning this way and that in front of the mirror. He fixed his hair again, smoothing down his suit jacket. He hadn’t been this nervous since meeting Gabriel’s dad, and that was months ago.  
“Sam, would you hurry your ass up? You’re gonna be late. I’m sure you look fine.” Dean said it like he was mad, but there was a grin stretching across his face, and a camera in his hand.  
Gabe had asked him to prom in the most ‘Gabriel’ fashion possible- Showing up outside Sam’s window with a dozen red roses and a boombox, singing ‘All of Me’ by John Legend.  
He’d opened the window, calling down to inform Gabriel that he was an idiot. When he’d asked him to prom however, he got a bitch face for the history books. He honestly said it like there was some reason to believe that they wouldn’t be going together already. There really wasn’t a need to ask.  
The doorbell rang, and Sam ran the comb through his hair one more time before going to answer it.  
Two months of dating had not prepared him to see Gabriel the way he was now, on his porch, dressed to the nines. If Sam looked handsome in his suit, then Gabe was stunning, all waistcoat and bowtie.  
“Hey there, hot stuff.” Gabriel said, smirking as he blatantly checked Sam out, eyes grazing slowly over every inch of him.  
“You know, you don’t look so bad yourself either.” Sam winked at him, turning when he heard Dean clear his throat expectantly.  
They turned around, walking into the living room where his brother was waiting with a Kodak, nodding his approval at Gabriel as he walked by.  
Sam wrapped an arm around his boyfriend’s waist while Dean snapped away, and he smiled so long his face started to hurt.  
After he was finally satisfied with the photographs, Dean let them go, making Sam promise to be home by morning and to ‘wrap it before you tap it’ if they were gonna do anything of a sexual nature.

After they got in the car, Gabriel shyly admitted that he had reserved a hotel room, just in case. No pressure was intended, and Sam felt none. They’d fooled around more than a bit, and they’d been about as close to sex as possible without having it. Sam had been ready for a while now, but the right time hadn’t presented itself yet. This was the opportunity he’d been waiting for.  
Maybe they were rushing into things. Sam knew that you usually didn’t tell somebody you loved them after you’d only been going out for three weeks, but it had just felt right. Dean had warned him to be careful, but falling in love was even better than it sounded in books and movies. All the sappy love songs that Sam would’ve rolled his eyes at not half a year ago, were suddenly his favorites, the ones he found himself singing in the shower, thinking about Gabriel. He knew Gabe felt the same way he did, which was the only reason none of it scared him like it probably should.  
When they got to the school, the entire gymnasium was draped in lights, with balloons tied to the railings of the one section of bleachers that were set up. There was a food table off to the side, with a giant bowl of red punch in the middle, of course. There were already plenty of couples out on the floor, shaking their asses to some Usher song. Girls’ shoes were littering the edges of the room, and the glaring main lights were turned off, so it was dim, just bright enough to see.  
“C’mon then, what are we waiting for?” Gabriel grabbed his wrist and led him onto the floor.  
“Sam, you’ve got to _move._ I know you can dance, we’ve done it before.” He said it like this was the kind of music they danced to. But sam still remembered that day vividly, smiling at the memory. _Yes, yes we have._  
Thank god Gabe didn’t try to get him to grind like some of the other couples were. There was already more than enough of that in the world.  
They danced for hours without tiring, moving fast to the energetic songs, and holding each other close to dance to the slower ones.  
People eventually started clearing out, and Sam raised his eyebrows in an unspoken invitation for Gabe and him to join them.  
Just as he was about to say yes, the song transitioned, and Gabriel leaned up and whispered, “As soon as this one’s over.”  
It took Sam a minute to recognize why it sounded so familiar, but once it clicked, he melted into his partner’s arms, letting him rest his head against Sam’s chest.  
 _“Maybe, we found love right where we are.”_

It was cold when they went outside, and that just made Sam pull Gabe closer as they walked to the car.  
He sent Dean a quick message to make sure he didn’t worry about them, which would be completely in character for him to do.  
 _We had a great time. Don’t wait up._  
They drove to the Holiday Inn, and Sam checked his phone one more time before putting it on the nightstand. Dean had texted him back.  
 _Don’t be stupid. And remember, there’s no such thing as too much preparation._  
Sam groaned at the thought of getting sex advice from his older brother. Before he could worry about it too long though, there were lips crashing into his, erasing any thought about Dean from his mind.  
x  
Gabe loosed his tie and started unbuttoning Sam’s shirt, silently cursing whatever fashion designer had thought this many buttons was a good idea.  
The waistcoat and Gabriel’s own shirt were discarded quickly, Sam sucking a dark purple mark right under his collar bone.  
Shoes and socks were kicked off, and pants were removed in a haphazard fashion, until they were both standing in their boxers, pressed so tight against each other not even water could’ve slipped through between them.  
In between kisses, Sam managed to catch his breath enough to ask if Gabriel had brought what they needed.  
He broke away long enough to reach into his pocket, producing a bottle of lube and a couple of condoms.

There was sort of an unspoken agreement between them that when the time came, Sam would be the one to do it. It would’ve been strange the other way around.  
They fell onto the bed, pulling down the waistbands of their boxers, adding them to the pile of clothing on the floor.  
“You’re sure?” Sam asked as he sat up, lube in hand.  
“Absolutely. Are you?”  
“Hell yeah.” Sam gasped, sliding his tongue into Gabe’s mouth as he opened the cap, squeezing enough to coat his fingers sufficiently.  
Gabriel lay on his back and spread his legs open for Sam to crawl between.  
Sam circled his hole for a minute, leaning down to kiss him as he slipped in the tip of his index finger. He pushed it in agonizingly slowly, not wanting to hurt Gabe in any way.  
Gabe’s breath hitched as he started to pull it out again, thrusting in once more, faster.  
Eventually, he added a second finger, but not until he was sure he could take it.   
Gabriel moaned, pushing back onto the fingers as they rubbed against his prostate, Sam kissing him slowly as he worked.  
Two turned into three, and he was practically writhing on the bed, begging for more. This was it. Neither of them could back out now, even if they wanted to.  
Sam slowly removed his fingers and rolled on the condom, applying more lube as he lined himself up.  
He took a deep breath, moving Gabe’s legs to his shoulders, before slowly pushing in.   
It was so tight, and for a minute he was worried that he hadn’t prepped him enough, until Gabriel started moving back against him. He pushed forward, surrounded by heat, until he bottomed out.  
Gabriel was breathing hard, and he stopped for a minute to let him adjust. Sam wasn’t exactly small, and they were both virgins, at least by this particular definition.  
After a minute, Gabriel rolled his hips back against him, letting him know that it was okay to move.  
He made a few shallow thrusts, fast, but gentle, before he felt Gabriel gripping onto his hand tightly.  
“Harder.” He said it less like he was begging and more like it was a command, one which Sam was happy to oblige. Getting bossed around was a level of hot he hadn’t realized he liked so much until now.  
He pulled back almost all of the way, before sliding in as deep as he could, Gabriel meeting him thrust for thrust.  
He angled up more, and in return heard the most broken sounding “Sam” he’d ever heard. His name had never sounded so good.  
Unfortunately, being a virgin meant having the stamina of one, too, and he knew this wasn’t going to last nearly as long as he wished it would. He wrapped a hand around Gabriel’s cock, pulling quickly in time with his thrusts.   
Gabe came first, calling out so loudly Sam had to put his other hand over his mouth, still stroking him as come shot out against his chest.  
Sam was quick to follow, thrusting until he went soft. He pulled out slowly, Gabriel looking at him, absolutely wrecked.  
He tied the condom and threw it away, running a washcloth under warm water to clean them up.  
They lay there, kissing lazily for a while, things heating up slowly. Teenage hormones were a very, very real thing, and he thanked whatever god there may or may not be that Gabe had brought a second condom.  
x  
While the sex had been completely mind-blowing, nothing could compare to the feeling of waking up curled around Gabriel, legs tangled together. He yawned, trying and failing to not wake him up as he did.  
Gabe stretched and rolled over, throwing an arm across Sam’s waist.  
“Good morning, babe.” He said with a sleepy smile, hair sticking out in every direction, eyes only half open.  
Sunshine poured in through the sheer curtains, illuminating his golden eyes, twinkling in the light.  
Sam wished that he could wake up like this every day. As Gabriel leaned in closer to capture his lips in a kiss, _maybe,_ he thought, _maybe someday he could._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading this far! Let me know what you thought! :)

**Author's Note:**

> Check out my writing tumblr @ writtenbyrachel, and my regular tumblr @ exarchangel
> 
> :)


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